Long before Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy, there was this lavish sprint through the lives and comic operas of the creators of The Mikado. Not all Gilliat's hopes were realised - he wanted more social history, and an easier flow between music and drama. But there's plenty still to feast on: winning performances, spectacle, the script's glancing wit, and the authentic G&S magic. Many hands shaped this Technicolor romp, with Alexander Korda-fueled creative disagreements to rival those of the film's subjects. Ultimately, however, the wit, spectacle and performances are a feast for the senses.
Dennis Price plays Louis, a young man snubbed by his aristocratic family as a result of his mother's marriage. When she's killed, Louis becomes determined to inherit the family title, and won't let anything or anyone stop him. With an unforgettable performance by Alec Guinness as all eight remain...
In post-war Britain following the detonation of an unexploded bomb the inhabitants of a London street discover riches and artefacts. These documents state that they are citizens of the medieval kingdom of Burgundy. When the government attempts to claim the fortune, the citizens of Burgundy declar...
Disturbed by visions of a labyrinthine London about to be consumed by water, a lonely father begins to destroy his family's tower block flat in order to make room for an unlikely refuge in their front room. Eerie, absurdist and darkly comic, this brilliant psychodrama won director Richard Heslop ...
